the sigh of silver strings (2015)

more beautiful burmese music

korean kayagum music - sanjo (1985)

some more kayagum sanjo, this time more modern. the second track is one of those great pieces of improvisational music that's so expansive you can lose yourself within it without even realising

green tea leaf salad - unique flavors of burmese music (2000)

i hear a lot of jon hassell in this. i don't really know what to say though, the variety of music here is stunning and sounds like little else i've heard. leafy greens

songs from nedelino: tradition of the rhodopes (2002)

another killer from the flawless inedit label. entrancing two-part antiphonal folk songs mostly performed by groups of women in a droning style, often accompanied by the native bagpipe.

from the liner notes: "two singers start the song, one singing the first part, the other the second, then another couple continues the song as an echo"

 the way the separate vocal parts move in this really visceral dissonant counterpoint to one another really gets me.

Stop crying, Mother, 

Stop looking for a cure, 

For me the remedy has already been found, 

It is the earth which is calling me.

scattered melodies: korean kayagum sanjo (2014)

sanjo is an improvisational form utilising the korean kayagum (related to the koto) and percussion accompaniment. it means "scattered melodies". this is a collection of 78s from the 1920s-50s

greece - epirus (1987)

collection of folk music from epirus, an area shared between northern greece and southern albania. a 21 minute free form funeral song featuring wailing clarinet and violin in dialogue, drinking songs, dancing songs: they have it all!

legendary kentucky ballad singer (1927/2002)

bobby d got his "moonshiner" from buell. then chan got hers from bobby, which is the best.

if whiskey don't kill me/i live a long time

golden throats

modern arrangements of traditional bulgarian folk songs sung by the bulgarian state radio and television female choir. sometimes sounds like a choir of elizabeth frasers (and fittingly was reissued on 4AD)

hypnotic vocal music from the nomadic tuareg peoples of mali

some traditional and not-so-traditional folk songs of the british isles. 10 minute acapella rendition of tam lin slays

the ale's what cures ye (2015)

it is you that makes my friends my foes,

it is you that makes me wear old clothes.

but since you come so near my nose

it's up you comes and down you goes.

svikiro - meditations from an mbira master (1997)

a svikiro is a spirit medium of the shona people of zimbabwe

nighttime nemakonde (2001)

an mbira is an african thumb piano, often fitted within a hollow gourd which acts as a resonator. it is important in the music of the shona people of zimbabwe and they have many different and peculiar modes in which mbira music is composed. the rattling which accompanies the mbira on this record is probably created by hosho, and instrument made from hollowed out maranka gourds and filled with seeds or other small objects.

gourds are great and so is forward kwenda